Psychology of Social Media and the Brain Behind It

Abstract

In today’s world, social media is a very important part of our everyday lives. Almost 50% of the world’s population uses social media, spending around 3.5 hours daily. In comparison, only 40% have flush toilets or proper water-related sanitation, and 18% use cars. The impact of social media on personal and interpersonal well-being has been thoroughly studied during the past few decades. However, the association between social media use, cognitive functioning, and underlying brain mechanisms has only recently begun to attract the attention of researchers. The aim of this review is to provide a comprehensive overview of the most recent and relevant research about psychological and neuroscientific determinants of social media use. We seek to introduce the most prominent concepts in this field and to make this review accessible to both experienced researchers and newcomers. We first explore some of the reasons why people use social media in such large numbers and so often. While the primary use of social media is to communicate with others, important motives also include seeking information, passing time, entertainment, and relaxation, as well as gaining knowledge about others and even spying without compromising one’s own anonymity. Next, we focus on findings from neuroscience and cognitive psychology to describe neural systems and cognitive functions that underlie social media use. We give special attention to the prime users of such technologies – children and adolescents – and some fundamental cognitive concepts like mentalizing, task switching, and attention capacities. Since research shows that various types of social media use differentially affect the brain and cognitive functioning, at the end we consider the possible harms and benefits of social networking. Even though the available studies are still scarce and the results we have are conflicting, one thing is very clear – the use of social media changes cognitive systems and the supporting brain networks.

10.5671/ca.48.1.9